|
Water Rates To Rise
 Arizona Water Company expects 24.8%
increase City Water District rates to
stay the same this year
By Sarah Owen
The News
The Arizona Water Company
(AWC) has notified Apache Junction
residents of an anticipated
24.8 percent surcharge increase,
or an average increase of $6.70
per household. The notice was
included in customers’ September
bills. The utility corporation,
which provides water to approximately
two-thirds of Apache
Junction’s residents, expects the
new rates to go into effect in November.
AWC filed an application with
the Arizona Corporation Commission
(ACC) in early August
for approval of the increase in
fees after new federal drinking
water standards were implemented.
According to AWC, the surcharge
will cover the costs incurred
for construction of three
new water treatment facilities.
The required facilities cost the
company nearly $15 million, President
Bill Garfield said.
The facilities filter arsenic out
of drinking water in accordance
with a new Maximum Contaminant
Level imposed by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
in January 2006. Under the
Safe Drinking Water Act standards,
drinking water must now
have a Maximum Contaminant
Level of no more than .010 arsenic.
See
A-1
and see Water
Rates,
A-6
Canyon Lake Set For 50
Ft. Drawdown
 Restrictions begin this Saturday,
September 29
By Meghan McCoy
The News
Restrictions for Canyon Lake
will be in effect starting Saturday,
September 29, 2007
due to scheduled maintenance
work at Mormon Flat (Canyon
Lake) and Horse Mesa Dams
(Apache Lake). The drawdown
of the lake levels is scheduled to
gradually lower Canyon Lake
to approximately 50 feet below
the normal, which will close the
lake until Saturday, January 26,
2008.
Canyon Lake is the second Salt
River Reservoir in two years to be drawn
down for maintenance work. The two dams
were built between the years
of 1923-1927 and range from 224 feet to
300 feet high. Last fall, Horse Mesa Dam
had scheduled maintenance work done,
which lowered Apache Lake 50 feet during
a similar drawdown.
The Bureau of Reclamation requires
regular inspections and repairs to keep
the
dams secure and safe. Prior to the
2006-2007 Apache Lake drawdown,
maintenance
work of this scope and on these
components, which are normally under
water on the
two dams, was last performed in 1989 at
Horse Mesa Dam.
See
A-1
and see Canyon
Lake,
A-6
Escaped Murderer
Recaptured
 Second Florence escapee remains at large
By Jill Jones
The News
FLORENCE- One of two escaped
murderers from a Florence
prison remains on the loose and
the other was whistling “Dixie”
right before his capture by
a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office
(PCSO) sergeant within hours of
their escape on Monday, September
17, 2007.
PCSO Sergeant Ty Morgan definitely
wasn’t “just whistling Dixie”
when he began tracking the
escapees. Morgan used his experience
of working in a prison in
the past and was laying in wait
when escaped murderer Kollin
Folsom, 24, appeared, reportedly
whistling Dixie as he crossed a
road in front of him.
Prisoners Folsom and Roy
Townsend, 37, had been assigned
to a nighttime cleaning detail
when they escaped from Corrections
Corporation of America’s
Florence Correctional Center
around 1 a.m. by overpowering
and restraining a guard, who authorities
said was not injured in
the incident. The two then used
ladders, which they took from a
maintenance room, to scale the
prison’s perimeter fences. The
escape is reportedly the first for
the prison since it began accepting
inmates in 1999.
See
A-1
AJHS Boys Swim Team
Sinks Cactus Shadows
 By Chuck Baker
The News
Taking first and second place
in seven of twelve events, the
Apache Junction boys swim
and dive team defeated Cave
Creek Cactus Shadows 101 to
85 during last Thursday’s away
meet. The Prospectors got first
place finishes by Cody Beck in
the 200 freestyle with a time
of 2:28.80, Robert Mohle in
the 100 butterfly with a time of
1:03.80, Tim Worth in diving
with a score of 210.05, Austin
Cherryholmes in the 100 backstroke
with a time of 1:10.80,
Jason Yates in the 500 freestyle
with a time of 5:58.46, the 200
medley relay with a combined
time of 1:51.63 by squad members
Jim Huynh, Cherryholmes,
Worth and Mohle, and first
in the 200 freestyle relay with
a combined time of 1:43.00 by
team members Yates, Mohle,
Huynh and Worth.
Second place finishers for the
AJHS boys included Mackenzie
Hvidsten in the 200 freestyle
(2:33.81), Mohle in the 50
freestyle (24:41), D.J. Lopez in
diving (170.25), Huynh in the
100 butterfly (1:07.53), Huynh
again in the 100 breaststroke
(1:16.53) and the 400 freestyle
team of Yates, Cherryholmes,
Beck and Andrew Jones with a
combined time of 4:07.55.
See
C-1
and see Swim,
C-2
|
